The Brazil Maru
The Ship
The Brazil Maru began life as a Japanese freighter launched in 1919 by the Kawasaki Dockyard Company of Kobe, Japan. Originally built for the Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK) Line, she was a standard cargo vessel designed for intercoastal and trans-Pacific trade. During peacetime, she transported raw materials and general goods, typical of Japan’s merchant fleet in the interwar period. Like many civilian ships of the era, she was robustly built—capable of carrying large tonnage, but without any features for passenger comfort or safety.
When Japan plunged into total war after 1941, its merchant marine was commandeered by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy to support troop movements, supply chains, and—grimly—prisoner transfers. The Brazil Maru thus became part of a network of “hell ships,” unmarked transports used to ferry Allied prisoners of war (POWs) under appalling conditions. She would become infamous for her role in one of the deadliest maritime tragedies of World War II—the aftermath of the Ōryoku Maru disaster.
By late 1944, Japan’s shipping losses to American submarines were catastrophic. Desperate to keep POWs and forced laborers flowing to the home islands, the Japanese continued to pack surviving prisoners into any available hull, regardless of condition or safety. The Brazil Maru was one such replacement—never designed for human cargo, let alone hundreds of starved and dying men.
The POWs
The story of the Brazil Maru cannot be separated from that of the Ōryoku Maru, another “hell ship” that was bombed and sunk by U.S. aircraft in Subic Bay on December 15, 1944, while carrying over 1,600 Allied POWs from Manila to Japan. About 270 prisoners were killed in that attack. Survivors were brought ashore and herded to an open tennis court in Olongapo under the burning sun, deprived of food and medical care.
After several days, Japanese guards forced the survivors onto trucks bound for San Fernando, Pampanga, then packed them into railcars north to San Fernando, La Union. There, on December 27, 1944, approximately 1,000 remaining POWs were loaded aboard two more ships—the Enoura Maru and the Brazil Maru. Both vessels were filthy, unventilated, and already filled with animal manure and cargo residues. Prisoners were crammed shoulder to shoulder in the dark holds, given almost no water or food.
The Brazil Maru carried mostly American POWs—soldiers, sailors, and Marines captured in the Philippines, many of whom had survived the Bataan Death March and the hellish prison camps of Cabanatuan and Bilibid. The men were skeletal, suffering from dysentery, malaria, beriberi, and malnutrition. The voyage northward, with inadequate medical care and no sanitation, quickly turned the holds into charnel houses.
By the time the Brazil Maru reached Takao (Kaohsiung), Formosa (Taiwan) on January 6, 1945, many POWs were already dead or dying. Yet worse awaited them when the Enoura Maru, moored nearby with several hundred prisoners aboard, was bombed by U.S. planes on January 9, 1945, killing hundreds more. The surviving POWs from that ship were transferred to the Brazil Maru—a final, desperate journey to Japan.
The Sinking (and Survival)
Ironically, the Brazil Maru herself was not sunk by enemy action—but the voyage she completed proved as deadly as any submarine attack. After taking aboard roughly 930 survivors from the Enoura Maru, she departed Formosa on January 14, 1945 bound for Moji, Japan.
Conditions were beyond human endurance. Prisoners were packed so tightly they could barely move. Ventilation was nonexistent, and temperatures fluctuated wildly. Disease spread rapidly—dysentery, pneumonia, and starvation took a terrible toll. Those who died were dragged to the hatch and tossed into the sea.
When the ship finally arrived in Moji Harbor on January 29, 1945, only about 550 men were still alive. Of these, fewer than 500 survived the subsequent forced-labor imprisonment in Japan and Manchuria. By war’s end, only 434 of the original 1,619 men who boarded the Ōryoku Maru in Manila were still alive—meaning nearly 1,200 had perished through bombing, starvation, disease, exposure, and neglect during the combined Ōryoku Maru–Enoura Maru–Brazil Maru ordeal.
The Brazil Maru survived the war but was later scrapped in 1948. Her name remains etched in the annals of war for the suffering she carried rather than any glory at sea.
Legacy
The tragedy of the Brazil Maru is part of the larger narrative of the Japanese “hell ships”—vessels that collectively claimed the lives of over 21,000 Allied POWs during World War II. Each ship represented a gross violation of the laws of war: POW transports were never marked, and Japanese authorities treated prisoners as expendable cargo rather than human beings.
For families in the United States, Australia, Britain, and the Netherlands, the Brazil Maru symbolized years of agony—sons and husbands declared “missing at sea,” their fate unknown until after Japan’s surrender. Survivor testimony gathered after 1945, including that of Lt. Cmdr. Robert Overbeck and other officers, provided harrowing detail on conditions aboard. These accounts fueled postwar war-crimes investigations that helped expose the scale of inhumanity in Japan’s POW system.
Today, the Brazil Maru’s story is memorialized at the Hellships Memorial in Subic Bay, Philippines, erected to honor the thousands of POWs who died at sea. The Brazil Maru’s survivors’ names also appear on the Manila American Cemetery’s Tablets of the Missing, as well as on numerous national war memorials across the Allied world.
The ship’s tale is not merely one of suffering but of endurance—the will to survive under impossible conditions. For researchers and descendants, its history serves as both a warning and a memorial: the sea itself became the grave for thousands who had already survived the unthinkable.
Timeline of the Brazil Maru Tragedy
1919 – Brazil Maru launched by Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Kobe, Japan, for OSK Line.
1941–1944 – Requisitioned by Imperial Japanese Army as wartime transport.
December 13–15, 1944 – Ōryoku Maru departs Manila with 1,619 POWs; bombed and sunk at Subic Bay.
December 15–26, 1944 – Survivors held on Olongapo tennis court; then moved by truck and train northward.
December 27, 1944 – Survivors (approx. 1,000) loaded onto Enoura Maru and Brazil Maru at San Fernando, La Union.
January 6, 1945 – Both ships reach Takao (Kaohsiung), Formosa.
January 9, 1945 – Enoura Maru bombed by U.S. aircraft; hundreds of POWs killed.
January 14, 1945 – Surviving POWs transferred to Brazil Maru for voyage to Japan.
January 29, 1945 – Brazil Maru arrives at Moji, Japan; fewer than 550 alive.
August 1945 – Japan surrenders; fewer than 435 of original group survive.
1948 – Brazil Maru scrapped.
Post-war decades – Survivors testify; POW rolls compiled by U.S. Army and Navy archives.
2006 – Hellships Memorial dedicated in Subic Bay listing Brazil Maru among the deadliest hell ships.
Primary Archival Sources
U.S. National Archives (NARA):
“Japanese Hell Ships Files” (RG 407, Box 1108).
POW movement rosters and postwar war-crimes testimony.
American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC):
Digital “Tablets of the Missing” entries for Ōryoku Maru and Brazil Maru victims.
U.S. Navy Historical Center / Naval Heritage Command:
Subic Bay operations, carrier air strike reports, and ship photo archives.
Roll-of-Honour.org.uk / FEPOW Family:
Individual biographies and casualty lists for Ōryoku Maru–Brazil Maru prisoners.
Bamban WWII Museum & Hellships Memorial Foundation:
Philippine field research, memorial plaques, and survivor interviews.
Survivor / Victim Lists
Total casualties (Ōryoku–Enoura–Brazil Maru sequence): ~1,180 deaths, ~435 survivors.
Comprehensive name lists available at:
Summary:
The Brazil Maru represents the culmination of the Pacific hell-ship tragedy: a vessel that, though not sunk in combat, carried hundreds of dying men to their graves. Her story is inseparable from that of the Ōryoku Maru and Enoura Maru, forming a trilogy of human endurance and horror. Today, as divers, historians, and families trace these histories from Subic Bay to Moji, the memory of the Brazil Maru reminds us that war at sea is not only fought with guns and steel—but also in the dark, airless holds where the innocent were left to die.